The beautifully intricate song of the nightingale is a rare presence in the UK these days, yet not at this rural location. Four years ago, a lone nightingale could be heard at this hidden place in rural Surrey; recently, they were in multiple locations. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from several zones,” explains a lead scientist, lead ecologist for the Youngwilders. A band of participants were camping out at the location, but the birds were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” comments a project coordinator. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so incredible.” An specialist from the local conservation group came to help them capture and tag one of the birds the next morning, Cookson recalls: “He’d never touched a nightingale in his hands before. He was teary.”
Rewilding Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Ecological restoration is by nature a gradual business, but at this site at the farm, after only several seasons, the changes are already visible, and audible. The farm previously served as a retirement home for horses. Today it’s a example for the Youngwilders’ mission: to accelerate habitat revival, in one of the biodiversity-poor nations in the globe, and to engage young people (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often shut out of, and a global warming issue they are often powerless to prevent. Climate change continues, deforestation destroys wildlife homes, and one more Cop summit ends with a unsatisfactory outcome in abroad – so what person could fault the younger generation for wishing to initiate change themselves?
Our project was premised on the notion that there were people willing to allow a group of young idiots on to their land
“The newer cohort is the most informed environmentally that there’s historically,” says the group's leader, a key figure. They are also “the highly invested in the issues, and have added the smallest part to their creation, and, then, are also going to be affected the worst as a result.”
Revitalization of the Site
Now, the initiative is taking root across the UK – and Maple Farm was the beginning, in all respects. “It’s the initial project, and the place we built our community,” notes Molly Easton, as she gives a tour of the 30-acre site. “This used to be six different fields,” she states, as we stroll through long grass filled with bushes, bordered by forest. “The main noticeable difference is that we’ve taken out all the enclosures, a significant length of it, to give the sense like a single area.” In the summer, they used protective gear and removed masses of harmful weeds, an non-native plant that can irritate the skin. “We’ve introduced numerous of bush lines,” explains she. “But the primary focus is we’ve just let it breathe for a short time. We’ve eliminated a significant amount of grazing pressure and noticed what’s sprung up.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a excellent nightingale habitat, she explains, but currently they’re cutting back some of the brambles to establish a greater variety of ecosystems and to connect two parts of the property. Young saplings will take much more time to establish, but saplings from the nearby oaks are already establishing themselves in the open areas; the crew have been placing guards to safeguard them from animals.
Nature Comes Back in Abundance
There's more than the nightingales – wildlife is coming back in abundance. Lately they’ve seen grass snakes, creatures, nocturnal mammals and bugs, explains another co-director, as he lifts up one of their reptile mats (such as a cover over a depression in the ground). “You discover reptiles and things sheltering under there, but it’s possibly a somewhat cool for them now.” Organic homes, built using carved pieces of tree trunk and active with pollinators, are attached to some of the plants. The removal of grazing horses has allowed insects room to thrive in the overgrown areas. When they visited this time, states he, “I’d not ever encountered so countless lepidoptera. There were just swarms of them. We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
Origins of the Movement
The initial Youngwilders – Bennett, Durant, Easton and two others – formed as learners, pursuing or expressing an concern in nature. In 2019, the IPCC was indicating that the safe limit of one and a half degrees of climate change was appearing unachievable, Greta Thunberg was leading the demonstrations for eco-awareness, and campaigner Clover Hogan was discussing the generation suffering from “eco-worry”. It was also the era of the author's book, about nature recovery, on how she and her husband transformed the Knepp Estate from a failing farm into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the example, but what was the function for the next generation?” says Easton. “So we created a platform and called many of wildlife trusts and were asking, ‘Do you sometimes get your estate holders seeking to take action and you don’t have time?’”
Jack explains the account: “Our whole organisation was essentially founded on the idea that there were people who were prepared to permit a group of youthful amateurs on to their property without strict rules, to take fairly massive actions that would change land value
